NASA Mission AMA: We are scientists and engineers preparing for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s Earth flyby tomorrow. Ask us anything!

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Tomorrow, NASA’s asteroid-hunting spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, will fly by Earth and use the planet’s gravitational pull to slingshot itself onto a new trajectory. This maneuver, called an Earth Gravity Assist (EGA), will put the spacecraft on course to rendezvous with a primitive, near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. The spacecraft will reach Bennu next year, map the asteroid, and collect a sample of surface material (called regolith) that will be returned to Earth for study in 2023. This mission will bring the largest sample of space material to Earth since the Apollo missions’ lunar samples.

We’re a group of scientists and engineers based at the University of Arizona—home to the mission’s Principal Investigator’s office and the Science Processing Operations Center—ready to answer your questions about OSIRIS-REx, EGA, and the mission to collect some of the oldest material in the solar system.

We’ll be online from 1 to 3 pm PST (4 to 6 pm EST). Ask us anything!

Proof: http://ift.tt/2xkJRvl

Dr. Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator

Sara Knutson, OSIRIS-REx Science Operations Lead Engineer

Dr. Ellen Howell, OSIRIS-REx Senior Research Scientist, Asteroid Spectroscopy

Joshua Nelson, OSIRIS-REx Science Operations Engineer

Anjani Polit, OSIRIS-REx Mission Implementation Systems Engineer

Heather Enos, OSIRIS-REx Deputy Principal Investigator

">NASA Mission AMA: We are scientists and engineers preparing for the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s Earth flyby tomorrow. Ask us anything!